Boost Your Valorant FPS without a Graphics Card: Top Tips

Are you a fan of Valorant but struggling with low FPS?

We will explore what Valorant is and why FPS is crucial in this popular shooting game.

We will also discuss how to increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card, the minimum requirements for playing, and the best settings for high FPS.

Whether you’re adjusting in-game settings or upgrading your hardware, we’ve got you covered with tips to boost your gaming experience.

What Is Valorant?

Valorant which is a combination of the words valor and valorant is a free-to-play first-person shooter (FPS) developed by Riot Games located in West Los Angeles, California. Described by Riot as tactical shooter, it is known as a unique game since it combined parts of Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and League of Legends. Agents, which are the game’s unique characters, have special powers along with their guns that add to the games’ dynamics.

Valorant was revealed with its codename Project A on October 15, 2019, and launched its closed beta on April 7, 2020, for the First-Person-Shooter’s community. Valorant was officially launched for Microsoft Windows on June 2, 2020.

The minimum system requirements for Valorant are quite low and include operating systems even in the Windows XP range. To assess the ability of a different system to run Valorant at a certain frame rate, Riot Games released the minimum and the recommended Valorant system requirements.

Why Is FPS Important in Valorant?

FPS is important in Valorant to increase the smoothness and responsiveness of the game’s rendering, thereby decreasing the time it takes for game logic and player actions to be displayed on screen. The standard 60 FPS is already fast enough to make the game look great and to permit competent players to perform at the highest level. But being able to squeeze out as many frames as possible using tweaks will increase fluidity to immeasurable levels.

This increase in a smooth rendering can sometimes supplement a game player’s reaction time and visual acuity via simultaneous detection and tracking of fast in-game objects. This is crucial, even if playing for fun, to avoid motion sickness and uncomfortable feeling during gameplay. Latency and Ping issues can be solved but are at times complex. So, ensuring optimal frames are displayed is the best way to at least minimize the roughness of the displayed game.

Can You Increase FPS in Valorant Without a Graphics Card?

You can increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card by closing background applications, increasing the game’s priority in the task manager, and decreasing in-game settings or resolution. The effectiveness of these methods depends on the current specifications of your computer.

For those with older computers, upgrading internal hardware or getting an external GPU is required to notice significant improvements in frame rates. To see if increasing fps in Valorant without a new graphics card is possible for your rig, track your CPU and GPU usages while playing Valorant using an app such as NZXT CAM.

What Are the Minimum Requirements for Playing Valorant?

The minimum requirements for playing Valorant comprise the following components. For Windows they are the OS (operating system) Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit), a CPU that is a 3 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, 1 GB VRAM, and 1280 x 720 screen resolution. DirectX 9c and a 30 fps min spec are enough to run in low settings. A 50-hour play time with the game for input devices. For the internet, at least 3 Mbps download speed and 1 Mbps upload speed is necessary.

How to Increase FPS in Valorant?

Increasing FPS in Valorant means reducing the amount of data on the screen. Eliminate components that show you K/D ratios or those that are not essential to enhancing your gameplay experience and improving your FPS rate if you are utilizing Valorant for gaming.

To increase FPS in games like Valorant on a laptop, some other tips for tweaking include making certain that no power-hungry applications are running in the background, increasing the priority of Valorant in task manager settings, decreasing the resolution, and lowering the game’s graphics settings in the video tab. In the case of Valorant, the best way for improving your FPS is by selecting low or medium settings which remove unnecessary items from the screen.

Adjust In-Game Settings

Changing the settings within the VALORANT game client is the most flexible way for one to seek an fps increase. The best way to increase fps is by lowering the settings such as Anti-Aliasing, Animation Quality, Material Quality, Particles Quality, and Detail Quality. Turning these off can cause a slight (5-7%) increase in performance while other settings peg the high teens decrease in GPU power requirement.

Update Graphics Drivers

Updating your graphics drivers is the most fundamental tip on this list. The drivers are a type of software that allows the operating system and software to control and communicate with the hardware component. Therefore, if the operating system or applications are having trouble communicating effectively with the hardware, it is possible the graphics drivers need to be updated.

To update the graphics driver on Windows, open the device manager, find the graphic drivers, right-click the drivers, and then select update. You can also download the new driver through the manufacturer’s official website and run it. The driver will automatically replace the older one. In Windows 10, updates to drivers are automatically installed when the system installs a Windows update. So if your computer is configured to update Windows automatically and a new graphics driver is available, Windows update will install new drivers for the graphics card within the system update.

Close Unnecessary Programs

If you need to keep your main RAM memory efficient, clear it of all tasks that are not needed, especially background applications that eat up RAM all the time. Use the Task Manager on Windows to End Task on as many tasks as possible, such as communication apps and other applications that are not needed. An unnecessary amount of RAM usage is usually the reason for dropped frames, so this strategy to increase frames on a low-end PC can help.

Optimize Windows Settings

Windows settings also impact FPS and there are two things you can do. One of the best ways to find out what Windows settings are affecting your computer’s performance is to bring up the Task Manager.

You can do this by clicking the Task Manager item from the taskbar context menu or pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard. From Task Manager, go to the Performance tab. Here you can see real-time information about processor, memory, IoT, and other performance metrics. Here we can see the number of processors your computer currently uses, as well as other data in chart form so you can see how what you do affects performance.

To optimize your computer’s performance by default, set the Visual Effects to either Adjust to best performance or a Custom setting where key items are checked but extras are not. Setting the visual effects to default helps ensure that the GPU or graphics card (rather than the CPU) is doing the heavy visual lifting in the background. Consequently, more resources will be left over to run games smoothly.

The other way is to ensure Power Management Mode is set to Prefer Maximum Performance. Windows Power Management saves energy but lowers gaming performance. It makes sense to use the power-saving setting for everyday tasks but maximum performance should be set for gaming.

Overclock Your CPU

CPU overclocking in Valorant allows you to push your processor beyond its limits, getting better framerates in the process. The extra heat generated by overclocking offsets the power consumption and should reduce GPU temperatures. Overclocking involves altering your CPU and Memory settings bands to increase clock speed and bandwidth.

You can overclock your CPU using the built-in overclocking options in your BIOS. Each CPU is different, so the extent to which you can overclock, whether your chip can handle increased voltages, or how to maximize the potential of your CPU will not be covered here.

If you wish to know more, research the topic in detail as there are many variables. It is generally safe to start to increase your frequency by 100-200MHz increments at a time. DRAM, QPI, and Hyperlinks can usually be overclocked by 120MHz. There are many CPU overclocking guides available online with recommendations, though you should always remember that the action of doing this voids warranties from CPU, Motherboard, and even GPU manufacturers.

Upgrade Your Hardware

If your system’s parts do not meet the minimum required specs for Valorant in the first place, then upgrading your existing hardware or buying entirely new components is recommended. You may want to consider upgrading your GPU, CPU, or RAM in order to ensure that your computer system is fully optimized. A new GPU built specifically for gaming might have dedicated VRAM with higher speeds and better core utilization that’ll make the game run smoother with a faster FPS. Additionally, a faster CPU or more RAM could help distribute the load better. Keep in mind that unless you get a new GPU, an upgrade to another one of these hardware components should mainly be to help balance the entire computer system for optimized performance rather than to give a general boost to FPS in Valorant. Alternative processes should be considered first and these upgrades should only be considered if nothing else helps.

What Are the Best Settings for High FPS in Valorant?

The best settings for high FPS in Valorant combine lowering the resolution and the graphics settings while maintaining all the essential HUD elements. You should also cap your framerate to prevent overheating, use full screen rather than windowed mode, and turn v-sync off so that you don’t cause performance hiccups.

These Valorant settings, preserved while adjusting from higher performance settings to easier-to-run setups, give values that work great for those computers just meeting the min spec requirements or need improved performance for sub-30 FPS. If you are playing on a laptop, connectivity-wise, it may be wise to switch to using an external, or wired mouse as wireless peripherals can sometimes lag during play and skew stats.

Resolution

Resolution reduces processing demand on the GPU. Decrease the resolution Valorant is running as follows:

1. Run the game in 720p and set the resolution scale to 70%. This is an extreme option, but it lowers processing demands by ~25%.
2. Run the game in 1600 x 900 (16:9) and set the resolution scale to 100%. This is less intense and lowers processing demands by 3-3.5%.
3. Run the game in 1280 x 720 (16:9) and set the resolution scale to 100%. This is a middle ground and lowers processing demands by about 13%.

Note that this will make the game look terrible since it will be pixelated, so choose whether the performance boost is worth the downgrade in aesthetics.

Display Mode

Display mode refers to the display resolution and fullscreen/window mode size. If you are looking to increase fps in Valorant or any other game, the most impactful factor you can change is the display mode, followed by in-game resolution. To get higher fps, first limit the resolution on the full-screen mode of the computer, then use full-screen window mode rather than full-screen mode. This will allocate fewer rendering resources for the game and improve the frames-per-second of the game.

Graphics Quality

Simply reducing the quality of your graphics settings in Valorant can significantly reduce the load on your CPU and motherboard, leaving system resources for FPS. Turn off Bloom and Distortion and reduce the quality of other effects. Disabling Anti-Aliasing (AA) can sometimes make your game appear pixilated, but will always increase FPS. The image below illustrates this reduction in image definition.

Anti-Aliasing

An additional method of how to increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card is to consider lowering or turning off Anti-Aliasing settings. Anti-Aliasing is used in video games to remove visible aliasing on angled lines. Aliasing refers to the stair-stepping in jagged edges of 3D models within a game when you move them or yourself in-game.

While anti-aliasing can make the game look more visually appealing, it is a taxing process on the GPU, and turning it off or lowering to the lowest acceptable settings can save some frames. It is not clear how much of an impact anti-aliasing will have on Valorant performance without a dedicated GPU, but you should try disabling it and comparing performance before any decisions about keeping it are made.

V-Sync

V-Sync is a short term for vertical synchronization. It is a graphics technology integrated with gaming consoles and gaming computers that allows applications to determine the current frame and display rate of a monitor.

It makes sure that two devices are synchronized. If they aren’t in sync and the frame rate of the application being run is higher than that of the output device, V-Sync will cut the frames of the application being run so that it doesn’t show any form of visual errors.

When the game is running at a lower frame rate than the display refresh rate (60 Hz, 120 Hz, or 240 Hz), the GPU stops sending frames to the monitor before it finishes displaying the final frame. Despite the synchronization problems that come with it, V-Sync can be added as a feature to the screen and input settings to keep the frames per second that the GPU is sending to the monitor consistent.

Typically compared to regular applications or web browsing, V-Sync in Valorant is a good technology to use. That said, the game allows you to reduce the resolution of your monitor to 1280 x 720 in the game settings, allowing the game to perform quite smoothly even without custom software. Overall, V-Sync is more useful and necessary for custom software gaming where the heads up displays are quite complicated.

Conclusion

When trying to increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card, start by tweaking the in-game graphics settings such as reducing resolution and quality, and the aim being to hit a resolution of 1366 x 768 if possible. Once in-game graphics have been set to their lowest and you still need more frames, while playing the game, utilize the Task Manager to temporarily close unnecessary applications that consume CPU. Lastly, aim to close unnecessary system animations such as those for Mouse Clicks in system settings and even set system power consumption to Performance.

Here are three keypoints on the topic of increasing FPS in Valorant without a Graphic Card:

• Set the in-game resolution to 1366 x 768 or lower.
• Make use of the system Task Manager to limit running background applications.
• Close unnecessary system animations to reduce CPU consumption.

Additional Tips for Improving FPS in Valorant

Players that are experiencing frame drops or are trying to get the highest FPS possible, here are further suggestions for improving the way the game runs based on findings from Cyber Chief Magazine, The Valorant Team, and Ciprian Adrian Rusen writing for Digital Citizen.

1. Lower background FPS: It can help to disable the client background and leaving it enabled during gameplay. To do so, go to settings > Video > Stats and change the Client FPS to “Disabled”
2. Make sure windows is updated: Make sure that window graphics drivers are also updated to the latest version. Without regular updates, users’ machines may operate at a reduced level of efficiency.
3. Closing Background Apps: Stopping or closing background processes in the Task Manager can free up processing power and RAM for your game. Apps asking to restart or update during gaming also can eat up spare power in substantial waydefsls efcxs
4. Disable Settings options carefully: Enabling the Weapon Skin Previews Show Team Loadout Weapons in HUD Disabling Client FPS functionality can all help to stop lag and increase FPS on lower powered machines.
5. Turn off audio enhancement for the microphone
6. Optimize the VALORANT game files
7. Lowest Possible Graphics Settings
8. Use High Power Powergreen Settings
9. Aura Sync
10. Hard Drive Space

All these actions have different methods for implementation, and suggest you visit their original sources to find the most suitable methods for your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I increase my FPS in Valorant without a graphics card?

There are a few ways to optimize your game settings and improve FPS without a graphics card. One option is to lower your in-game graphics settings, as this reduces the strain on your CPU. You can also try updating your graphics drivers or closing any unnecessary background applications.

Will overclocking my CPU improve FPS in Valorant without a graphics card?

Overclocking your CPU can potentially increase FPS, but it may also put extra strain on your system and could cause stability issues. It’s important to research and carefully follow proper overclocking techniques to avoid damaging your hardware.

Can upgrading my RAM help increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card?

Increasing your RAM can help improve overall system performance, but it may not have a significant impact on FPS in Valorant without a graphics card. It’s recommended to have at least 8GB of RAM for gaming, but more doesn’t necessarily mean better performance.

Are there any in-game settings I should adjust to increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card?

Yes, there are a few settings you can adjust in Valorant to improve FPS without a graphics card. One option is to lower your resolution, as this reduces the workload on your CPU. You can also disable V-sync, reduce or disable anti-aliasing, and turn off any unnecessary visual effects.

Is it possible to increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card on a laptop?

Yes, it is possible to improve FPS on a laptop without a graphics card. You can follow the same tips for adjusting in-game settings and optimizing your system, but keep in mind that laptops may have limited hardware capabilities compared to desktop computers.

Can using third-party software help increase FPS in Valorant without a graphics card?

Some third-party software, such as Razer Cortex or MSI Afterburner, offer features that can help optimize your system for gaming and potentially increase FPS. However, it’s important to research and use these tools carefully, as they can also cause issues if not configured properly.